Gareth Wyn Jones of Tynllwyfan, Llanfairfechan, has been announced as the winner of the 2013 NFU Cymru / Principality Welsh Rural Community Champion Award.

The competition, in its fifth year, recognises the hard work farmers do off the farm to help their local town or village community, with the winner receiving the top prize of a hand-crafted slate clock and £500 and the two runners-up receiving £100 each.

Gareth has around 300 sheep and cares for around 220 Carneddau mountain ponies.

Janet Finch-Saunders, Gareth’s local Assembly Member, nominated him for the award and in her application on his behalf she wrote: “Millions of people watched Mr Jones’ plight and his amazing efforts to rescue dozens of pregnant ewes and Carneddau ponies trapped on the mountains following the tragic circumstances brought about by the severe weather in north Wales. He inspired the community of Llanfairfechan to help farmers in the area.”

Gareth is a local councillor and a former mayor of Llanfairfechan. As well as working within his local community he is constantly looking at new ways to spread the message about the work of hill farmers using Twitter, TV, radio and his bestselling book, launched last year.

NFU Cymru Deputy President Stephen James said: “After much deliberation, all the judges were agreed that Gareth is an extremely worthy winner of this award. This year the award has taken on a whole new dimension with Gareth’s use of the social media community to promote his work as a hill farmer as well as his local community.”

The two runners-up are Jonathon Harrington from Powys and Gerwyn Owen from Ceredigion.

Principality Building Society’s Sponsorship and Events Manager Pat Ashman said: “Thousands of people know who Gareth is after seeing his rescue efforts in the media earlier this year but for me Gareth is even more worthy because he epitomises the 21st century farmer. He has truly led by example, tapping into new communication tools to engage and work together with other farmers and communities to improve their areas. We saw some fantastic finalists at this year’s awards and hope that our Welsh farmers will continue to inspire their local communities.”